Review: Seymour Hersh turns his pen on his own life in entertaining memoir

By Barbara HallSpecial to The Journal

Sunday

Jul 8, 2018 at 1:00 AM

From the infamous My Lai massacre in Southeast Asia to Watergate. From Jack Kennedy's administration to the demise of Osama bin Laden. Seymour M. Hersh has uncompromisingly witnessed these and other signal occurrences.

From the infamous My Lai massacre in Southeast Asia to Watergate. From Jack Kennedy's administration to the demise of Osama bin Laden.

Seymour M. Hersh has uncompromisingly witnessed these and other signal occurrences. What's more, over decades he has exhaustively chronicled these and more so that we, his readers, gain a deep understanding of our times.

Whether it was for The New York Times or The New Yorker magazine, Hersh has served as a conduit between observers and the observed.

Now, in this matter-of-fact personal account, he tells us the story of his — of our — lives.

He began in the heartland. Specifically, he explains, "The streets of Chicago somehow gave me a sense of well-being that stayed with me throughout my career and kept me from falling into a funk when my work was being savaged, as it occasionally was."

Whether it be H.L. Mencken, Harrison Salisbury, Katherine Graham or Kay Fanning, biographies of journalism greats tend to be as full of life as, say, contemporary Iliads.

Take Hersh's description of his chasing 9/11 for The New Yorker.

"I was hunting for any inside information and intelligence assessments I could get my hands on. My thought was to flex my feathers, like a bird in mating season ..."

Hersh punctuates his book with anecdotes that convey the razzle-dazzle, push/pull newsroom atmosphere.

In one instance, he cites an exchange that typifies a long-running feud between himself and then-New York Times executive Abe Rosenthal. It took place during phone conversations between the two about an assignment for Hersh and is related here by a third party.

"Mr. Rosenthal, it's Sy Hersh. Listen, you want an interview with [Paul Meadlo, a witness to the My Lai massacre]? Well, he's somewhere in New York — find him." Sy slammed the phone down. I stared at him in awe. He'd just hung up on 'all the news that's fit to print ...'

"Seconds later the phone rang again. Sy grabbed it.

"Mr. Hersh," Abe Rosenthal yelled, "do you know who I am!'

"Yes, replied Hersh and hung up on him again.

"That night, Meadlo led the CBS Evening News. Mike Wallace interviewed him and he calmly told America how he had shot women and children in the ditches of My Lai. It sent a shudder through the nation."

(In an aside, Hersh confides, "Every once in a while I thought that there was a reason God made editors.")

When all is said and done, Hersh looks back without regrets and forward with unstinting ... call it joy.

His memoir closes with an exclamation point rather than a question mark.

"There will always be much to do and some magical moments along the way."

— Barbara Hall has written for such publications as The New York Times, Washington Post and Philadelphia Inquirer.